Ideas on covering a whole mesh with (irregular) tiles, following the shape of the mesh?
Two possible options:

use the Tissue addon in tesselate mode.  http://www.co-de-it.com/wordpress/code/blender-tissue


Tessellate tool allows the user to copy a selected object (Component) on the faces of the active object (Generator), adapting its bounding box to the shape of quad-faces. Once the Tessellate button was pressed, then more options will appear in the Operator parameters. Update allows you to update the active the Tessellated mesh according to Component and Generator changes. You can also change the parameters of tessellation.


use Instancing. In the shape of the ship select instancing faces:


Then select the tile, shift select the ship (so that both objects are selected but the spaceship is active) and press Ctrl+ P. Select &quot;Parent to Object&quot;. The tile object shold become a space ship made of tiles.